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Complaint form

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Before you lodge your complaint, please take a moment to read our Data protection notice.

An asterisk (*) denotes mandatory items. Not replying to mandatory items in the form would leave us unable to properly investigate the complaint and may render your complaint inadmissible.

What is your complaint about?

1. Are you:

Please note that according to Article 68 of Regulation 2018/1725, only persons employed with the EU institutions, bodies and agencies have standing to lodge complaints relating to facts that do not concern them personally, acting as whistle-blowers. However, the EDPS may launch own-initiative inquiries concerning breaches alleged by outside persons not personally concerned by the processing.

2. Who are you complaining against?
Please note that the EDPS is only competent for dealing with complaints against processing by the EU institutions, bodies and agencies.
Please note that the EDPS will usually not investigate complaints relating to facts which the complainant learned about more than two years ago.
The maximum file size is 3 MB per file and you can provide three files at most.
Allowed types: pdf, doc, docx, odt, ppt, pptx, odp, xls, xlsx, ods.
If you want to submit additional documents, please let us know.
If your supporting documentations adds up to more than 40 pages, please provide a summary.

Which other steps have you already taken?

7. Have you already contacted the institution you want to complain against concerning the alleged breach(es)? If yes, please provide details. For example, if you want to complain about the reply you received to your request for personal data, please provide a copy of that reply.
If you have not yet contacted the institution (the controller), we recommend that you do so before submitting your complaint. Each institution has a Data Protection Officer (DPO), who may be in a better position to assist you in resolving the issue. As DPOs are closer to the institutions, they may be able to help you more quickly. For the exercise of your right (of access etc.), please always contact the controller first.
8. Have you submitted the same matter to other bodies (Court of Justice, European Ombudsman, etc.)?

Contact information

9. Your Name (please note: if you are a lawyer acting on behalf of a client, please enter your client's name here, not yours - please enter your details under "contact information" below and attach a power of attorney)

please include country information

Confidential treatment

12. The EDPS treats all complaints confidentially. However, the investigation of your complaint may require disclosing your identity and the allegations you made to the institution against which you complained and, if necessary for the investigation, to the third parties involved, including national supervisory authorities where relevant. The EDPS will also copy the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of the institution concerned into all correspondence between the EDPS and the institution in question. If it turns out that your complaint falls into the competence of a data protection authority of a Member State, we will forward your complaint to them, as they are the ones who can investigate it. Any public summaries of cases (e.g. for the annual report of the EDPS) will be completely anonymous.

Do you accept this standard confidential treatment of your complaint? If not and you wish to remain anonymous to the institution concerned, to the relevant DPO or to third parties, please explain the reasons for your request. Please also explain which additional safeguards you would like us to take. We will consider how far we can implement these requests and will keep you informed.
13. I acknowledge having read and understood the Data protection notice.
Link to Data protection notice